Gill Hoffs

About Me

I worked with children with a variety of behavioural problems until I had my son in 2007. Early 2010, I started having weird [usually painless] migraines. I'd always enjoyed reading and writing, but never usually managed to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, in a manner I liked. However, the migraines seemed to change all that and suddenly I had beginnings, middles and endings and words flowing in my head.

I've had work included in print anthologies, magazines and e-zines, performed, and published online. Book-wise, I've written a supernatural thriller and the first in a series of crime thrillers set in Warrington, England where I used to live - I'm currently looking for representation/publication for both - and I'm researching a nonfiction book about amazing rescues in Scottish waters and writing a darkly unusual thriller.

One of my books was recommended for shortlisting for the Virginia Prize - it didn't quite make the cut but what a thrill to get that far! I'm still buzzing from it. My nonfiction book on a Victorian shipwreck is due to be released by Pen & Sword in the UK in January 2014.

If anybody has any true tales they would like considered for the rescues book, or just fancies a chat, please feel free to contact me at: gillhoffs@hotmail.co.uk

My collection of fiction and nonfiction - "Wild: a collection" - is out now from Pure Slush in both print and e-book format.

Why do you write?

To put it simply - I can't not. The only way to get the stories out of my head and allow room for thought [and more stories] is to write them down. There are few things out there more thrilling and satisfying to me than getting work published, or performing it for an audience [reading at the Edinburgh Festival in a side event was fantastic fun!].

Any favorite authors? Books?

Jeremy Scott - author of the nonfiction books 'Fast and Louche', and 'Dancing on Ice' [a tale of polar exploration in the 1930s] is my favourite author. His work is wildly entertaining, beautifully descriptive, and full of feeling. Apart from that I enjoy a wide mix: science, history, murder mysteries, and SF, including Ray Bradbury, Val McDermid, Graham Masterton, John Connolly, Karin Slaughter, Oliver Sacks, Simon Garfield, Dennis Lehane, Neil Gaiman and Nathaniel Philbrick.

Gill Hoffs's Wall

Hi Gill, thanks so much for reading and commenting on THE RUNAWAY--much appreciated! I am puzzled by your comment, though--the story IS through Josh's eyes. Do you mean change from 3rd to 1st perspective? Thanks, and peace...

Gill, "<a href="http://pureslush.webs.com/protein.htm">Protein</a>" at Pure Slush is a hell of a piece. The entrance into the workshop of death, with lines like: "Bunches of them, open beaked and broken necked, heavy in death." — absolutely over the sea fantastic. Allusions of mythical decay (bluebeard), and of Hitchcock in reverse. Loved this.

Gill, thanks a ton for your thoughtful comments on Wrestling with Genetics. So thrilled to see you in conversation with Susan Tepper in Monday Chat as well as all your successes lately. Makes me so thrilled for you.

thanks for reading and commenting on Hidden Reminders. I really appreciate the time you took for both. Yes, you got it just right...but it's not morbid for you to think it was her body - stuff like that could happen. Fos.

Thank you for your comment on "Madness." As far as I know, she is playing her game, and I am subject to it... It isn't exactly unrequited, for she does return the feelings, I just am at a loss on how to go forward.

Thanks, guys! Really looking forward to reading and commenting here. Might even dare to try 'fave-ing' once in a while. Won't be hard to find favourites given the quality of the work I've seen via facebook. Gill